CRANBERRY, Pa. -- Mike Sullivan hasn't seen all 499 regular-season goals Sidney Crosby has scored since he entered the NHL in 2005.
Very few, if any, people have.
Heck, even Crosby probably has missed a few, since he's gotten some that defied description, belief and an occasional law of silence.
Still, Sullivan witnessed Crosby's first -- he was behind the Bruins' bench at TD Garden when Crosby rapped a loose puck past Hannu Toivonen from the right side of the crease on Oct. 8, 2005 -- and his most recent, when he beat Jeremy Swayman from low in the left circle in Boston Tuesday.
And he'll have an ice-level view of No. 500, which could come as soon as the Penguins' game against the Devils Sunday at 1:38 p.m. at Prudential Center.
During his six-plus years as Crosby's coach, Sullivan has watched him score on lots of standard-issue wrist shots, conventional deflections and even an occasional slap shot.
But he's also looked on as Crosby routinely launched pucks past goaltenders with the most lethal backhand shot of his generation.
He has seen Crosby regularly drop to one knee to get the leverage needed to drive a puck into the net, and observed him swatting rebounds out of mid-air so effortlessly that some major-league team might like to have him as a leadoff hitter.
Not surprisingly, then, Sullivan can't single out a signature-type goal for Crosby -- something like, say, an Alex Ovechkin slap shot from the left circle -- but he suggested that Crosby is a threat anytime he's deep in the attacking zone.
That's true regardless of how an opponent's stifling defense -- or even geometry -- might seem certain to shrivel his chances of manufacturing a goal to a bit less than microscopic.
"He's so good around the net," said Sullivan, who joked that "I try not to remember" Crosby getting goal No. 1 against a club he was coaching. "He scores so many goals from really sharp angles. Along the goal line. Below the goal line, where he banks it off the backs of goaltenders. He thinks the game on such a high level. He's so creative in how he sets up plays and creates opportunities for his linemates, but also how he scores, himself.
"You see him around the net, a lot of times, going down on that one knee. He gets really low to the ice and makes himself 'big' so that a potential deflection target is so big. He's so good at that. His stick, in and around the blue paint, how he deflects pucks from sharp angles. I think he's been so creative, in that regard. I think Sid's one of those pioneers of the game, with how creative he is and how he thinks the game at such a high level."
Neither of the goals that arguably are Crosby's two most memorable -- his shootout winner at Ralph Wilson Stadium in the NHL's initial Winter Classic, in 2008, and his overtime score against the U.S. in the gold medal game at the 2010 Olympics -- included anything unusual.
Both came on well-placed, but otherwise ordinary, forehand shots against Ryan Miller, and neither counted toward his total of 499.
Even though Crosby is on the cusp of becoming just the 46th player in NHL history to record 500 goals -- and has won two Rocket Richard trophies as the league's top goal-producer -- his scoring ability seems to be underrated in some quarters, if only because so many other elements of his game are equally, if not more, impressive.
Such oversights can happen when a guy also has 868 assists (24th on the all-time list), is arguably the best 200-foot player in the game and never allows his sweat glands to take a shift off.
"He's just a complete player," Brock McGinn said. "Everything he does is so special out there. ... Everybody might see him as a passer, but he's obviously a good scorer."
While skill obviously is the sore component of Crosby's goal-scoring, Mike Matheson, who has faced him while playing for Florida and in practice since joining the Penguins in 2020, said his tenacity is critical to what he has been able to accomplish.
"He keeps coming at you, no matter how long throughout the game you've been able to neutralize him," Matheson said. "That's got to be his best quality. There are guys in the league who have more skill than him in certain areas, more ability and things like that. You see it sometimes with that line (that includes Bryan Rust and Jake Guentzel), especially when it gets going down low, and he's just turning his back on defensemen and it seems like there's nothing you can do to get the puck off him.
"I mean, he is great at protecting the puck -- definitely one of, if not the, best in the league at doing that -- but I think his will is what really separates him from a lot of others from around the league."
Well, it's one of those things, anyway. Getting to 500 will be something else that distinguishes him from everyone else currently in the NHL, with the exception of Ovechkin.
And while goal-scoring isn't necessarily the facet of Crosby's game that comes immediately to mind for some, the inescapable reality is that he's about to secure membership in one of hockey's most exclusive fraternities.
"It's a pretty big milestone in this game," Rust said. "Not a lot of guys can say they scored 500 goals. It's something that sets apart the great players from the rest."
